Ontario’s first graduate-level physician assistant program has begun at Western University, training 29 students for a profession that could help expand access to primary care across the province.
The master of physician assistant studies is a two-year program that prepares students to work in physician-led teams in a range of health care settings, including hospitals, primary care, emergency medicine, and specialty services.
Program director Josee Paradis said the program has already seen a “tremendous” amount of interest, with more than 1,000 applicants for its inaugural cohort. The program is backed by a Queen’s Park push to connect everyone in Ontario to primary care by 2029. In February, the province announced that $16 million would be invested to add as many as 150 new physician assistant education spots in Ontario universities between 2026 and 2027.
“Physician assistants are known to improve access to care for patients, reduce wait times, improve times to discharge for admitted patients and they also help reduce physician burnout,” Paradis said. “There are a lot of really good statistics to support the benefit of having a physician assistant within team-based care.”
The profession is relatively small in Canada, with about 1,000 certified physician assistants in the country and 600 in Ontario, according to the Canadian Association of Physician Assistants. Sophie Kelly, a student in the new program, said many people are still unfamiliar with the profession and its role in patient care.
She was studying nursing when she first encountered a physician assistant during a clinical placement and had never considered the profession before.
“Just last week a classmate told me a med student asked us if we were a type of nurse,” Kelly said. “I think what’s most important is bringing awareness to physician assistants, what we do and how we can contribute to the health care system.”
Physician assistant students also learn alongside medical students in select areas of Western’s medical curriculum, giving the two groups an opportunity to become familiar with each other’s roles.
Jack Strong, another student in the Western program, said that building relationships between physician assistants and medical students early in their training will be important as the profession grows.
“Starting that relationship now is kind of vital,” Strong said. “Instead of having to start your career and you’re doing your elevator pitch every day, it’s going to get easier where we don’t have to explain what we do.”
ayoung@postmedia.com
Allison Young grew up just outside London and joined The London Free Press as a reporter in 2026. She is a graduate of Carleton University’s journalism and humanities program.
ayoung@postmedia.com